The present disclosure relates to beverage preparation apparatus, namely, brewers for infusing a beverage making substance with a heated substance such as water to produce a beverage.
A variety of beverage brewers have been developed which can be divided into two general classes. The two classes of beverage making equipment generally include pour-over brewers and boil-over heat pump or “burp and boil” brewers. There are differences and benefits associated with the use of a pour-over brewer compared to a heat pump brewer. These differences generally relate to the speed with which a beverage can be produced as well as the quality of the beverage produced. The heat pump brewers tend to take a considerably longer amount of time to produce the same volume of beverage and tend to brew the beverage at a temperature which may not be controlled and may be too hot to obtain an optimum brewed beverage.
The pour-over brewing system generally includes a heated reservoir which retains a volume of heated water. A quantity of water is added to the reservoir to displace the heated water thereby displacing or driving heated water out of the reservoir and into a brew basket or funnel portion of the apparatus which retains a brewing substance for brewing with the heated water. Since the water is provided in a heated condition and merely displaced by water entering the heated reservoir, the pour-over brewer operates as an “on demand” brewer. Additionally, the water added to the heated reservoir can be heated during the brewing cycle to increase the through put of brewing cycles. Additionally, the temperature can be better controlled since the motive force to dispense the heated water is the displacement of the heated water from the reservoir.
In contrast, a burp and boil system generally provides longer brew times and less temperature control resulting in less controllable resultant brew characteristics. The burp and boil system operates by providing a reservoir for receiving water which feeds a heated water line. The heated water line is heated by a resistance heating configuration. The water line is connected to the reservoir thereby providing a source of water to fill the water line. As water enters the line while the line is heated, water rapidly is heated, boils and expands out of the line and into the brewing substance. A less desirable side effect of this process is that the water must be heated to boiling or near boiling to be moved through the brewing cycle. In other words, the motive force for moving water from the reservoir through the brewing apparatus is the boiling process.
It has been reasoned that it may be desirable to increase the efficiency of the energy used to brew a beverage. In both of the two general types of brewing apparatus a relatively considerable amount of energy can be expended to produce a brewed beverage. The pour-over system conserves energy by using a lower temperature than the burp and boil system. However, an incremental amount of energy must be used to maintain the water in the reservoir at a desired temperature. In the burp and boil system, energy might be conserved by not maintaining a reservoir of water at a desired temperature but a considerable amount of energy must be spent to rapidly raise the temperature of the water to produce the boiling motive effect.
The exemplification set out herein illustrates embodiments of the disclosure that are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any manner. Additional features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments exemplifying modes of carrying out the disclosure as presently perceived.